"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." –Arundhati Roy

In terms of cross-cultural comparisons, 'ignorance' has a great deal in common with the Christian conception of 'man's fallen nature'. Obviously the major difference is that the Buddhist approach to the problem teaches self-reliance instead of simple faith in a saviour. But there's a lot more in common between the two than a lot of people are willing to admit (IMO).

Learn to do good, refrain from evil, purify the mind ~ this is the teaching of the Buddhas

muni wrote:"In your world to be respected, men have to show to be great in as much ways as possible, in this world men are highly respected when they defeat the ego concept; the root of all confusion".

muni wrote:"In your world to be respected, men have to show to be great in as much ways as possible, in this world men are highly respected when they defeat the ego concept; the root of all confusion".

The poor yellow head, always suffering from selffishness, no generosity while his friend gives the only watch of his father, yellow head suffers of jealousy, depression, steals dog food and become sick, is very busy by showing all his great artificial arts.....while his friend, simple and naturally is much more comfortable and peaceful.

Wesley1982 wrote:How does a student of Buddhism begin to learn to recognize the 'root of samsara'..?

Hi Wesley. A big thing I want you to consider is that one is only a student of Buddhism when one has a teacher. Books are not a teacher. Dharma forums are not a teacher. Only when you have a real flesh and blood teacher can you then take books and forums as teachers. Books and forums are in NO way a substitute for flesh and blood teachers. Becoming a student of buddhism isn't about working it out intellectually - it's more the shock of meeting someone in flesh and blood who has worked it out and being inspired by that. At the moment you are constructing Buddhism as knowledge and not really contemplating the meaning. I've noticed you post quite a lot here and I think generally it's good that you ask questions, but if your interest is genuine then you will need to meet and talk with a teacher. This is the key for a genuine understanding to come about. You should ask a teacher what is the root of samsara and you might receive an interesting answer that relates to your circumstances directly.

The Blessed One said:

"What is the All? Simply the eye & forms, ear & sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body & tactile sensations, intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the All. Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for his statement, would be unable to explain, and furthermore, would be put to grief. Why? Because it lies beyond range." Sabba Sutta.

Ogyen wrote:isn't the root - ignorance (Avijja or Avidya)?? 1st link in the 12 links of dependent arising... for any beginner, I found that samsara's cycle can be learned about extensively in the 12 links.

Quite right, it is ignorance of the dependently originating nature of phenomena. That's what grasping to an truly independently existing self is based on. So one could say it is ignorance of the dependently originating nature of what we refer to as a self. It's a chicken and egg deal.